THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



15 



lie. too. liiis till' lire of hoi>e kindled in his 



bi-east. 



* * * 



The besetting sin of the business inter- 

 ests of Great Britain has been self-com- 

 placency. When American-made goods 

 first began to be exhibited for sale in Eng- 

 land. British manufacturers smiled in a 

 superior, patronizing way. The blooming 

 Yankees were real sharp fellows, don't you 

 know. Cousins of ours and all that. And 

 it is really amusing to see how much they 

 think they know, said the British. 



The attitude of the British public was. 

 in fact, about that of an e.vperienced and 

 successful man toward a bright and prom- 

 ising, but very conceited, nephew. But 

 the American-made goods kept coming and 

 coming, and began crowding the British 

 manufacturer in a good many ways. Then 

 it became the "Ainericau Invasion." and it 

 has grown to such dimensions that it be- 

 comes a national menace, and the British 

 public has passed from a state of.amused 

 tolerance, through several stages of anger 

 and irritation, to that of almost helpless 

 stupefaction. 



And the British public, and a very clean, 

 senjsible and determined public it is, is 

 beginnUig to inquire seriously and eagerly 

 as to what is the matter. And although il 

 will take some time, the British public 

 will eventually learn what it is. It will 

 learn that it is not that the Americans 

 have a protective tariff that renders them 

 so formidable; nor does their cheap raw- 

 material account for it more than in a 

 small measure. It will find the chief cause 

 of America's tremendous commercial and 

 industrial development to be the vim and 

 enthusiasm of the American workman. 

 And when I say workman I don't refer to 

 any class. An American is a workman 

 whether he be a mechanic at a bench, a 

 foreman, superintendent, or proprietor. 

 Nearly every proprietor started as a work- 

 man and every workman expects to finish 

 as a proprietor. We are all workmen, 

 strong, enthusiastic and determined work- 

 men, striving not merely for our bread and 

 butter but for the highest places in the 

 land. 



And a nation of 80 millions of sucli 

 workers, with the resources of a great new 

 continent at their disposal, unhampered 

 by creeds or classes or military folly, 

 makes tough i-ompetitiou. 



And the British public will liiul that a 

 protective tariff won't help i(. 



•:t * * 



There is no doubt but that a protective 

 tariff has been of vast benefit to their coun- 

 try and aided ennnnously in its develop- 

 ment. 



In the beginning this was an almost 

 exclusively agricultural country, and it 

 was almost entirely due to the bull-headed 

 attempt of Croat Britain to keep us an 

 agricultural country and prevent our dc 

 veloi)ment in other directions that led 1<> 

 the separation of the two countries. 



Ill the beginning we were an agricultural 



people because agriculture could be en- 

 gaged in without capital or experience, and 

 we exchanged our agricultural products 

 and raw material for manufactured goods. 

 But that we should send wool and cotton 

 to England to have it made into cloth to 

 be returned to us, we not only paying the 

 freight both ways but also the freight on 

 the food we sent to feed the British work- 

 men, was contrary to the fitness of things, 

 and that we prospered under such a condi- 

 tion was due only to the^fact that our soil 

 was so sti'ong and new. 



Then our forefathers conceived the idea 

 that by taxing our agricultural interests 

 for a time we could build up manufactur- 

 ing interests, and that once the manufac- 

 turers were established the agriculturists 

 would get their money back a hundredfold. 



In this country the protective tariff 

 worked in harmony with the fitness of 

 things. When the tariff was established 

 it was for the purpose, not of diverting 

 things from their natural channel, but to 

 give them an opportunity to get into such 

 channel. 



And owing to the fact that our soil was 

 so strong and new, the agricultural inter- 

 ests could stand the strain of paying more 

 for their cotton and woolen cloth, their 

 implements of iron and steel, and so on, 

 for a few years, until such time as our 

 manufactures could be established. 



But because a protective tariff was a 

 great benefit to a new and undeveloped 

 counti-y, of great natural wealth, that is 

 no. indication that it will be the same for 

 an old and practically exhausted country. 

 If (ireat Britain had a lot of undeveloped 

 mineral wealth, for instance, and was ship- 

 ping its mineral products to this country 

 to be manufactured and shipped back, and 

 her other interests were strong enough to 

 stand the strain of higher prices for a few 

 years, a protective tariff on iron and steel 

 goods would be of benefit, but how a na- 

 tion whose wealth in natural resources is, 

 if not exhausted, at least developed and 

 exploited to the fullest extent, is to get 

 any benefit from a protective tariff, it is 

 ditticult to see. 



The scheme is, I boliere. meant to in- 

 clude the British colonies. In plain and 

 unvarnished phrase, Canada, for instance. 

 is to remain an agricultural coiintry and 

 is to send her raw material to England 

 to be manufactured and returned to her. 

 paying the freight both ways, and the 

 manufacturing charges, thus giving em- 

 ployment to British workmen, a profit to 

 British merchants and good business to 

 British shipping interests, and enabling 

 the present order of things in Great Britain 

 to go on undisturbed; the British aristoc- 

 racy to continue in its elegant idleness, the 

 British niercliaiit to jiut in four hours a 

 day at his business, the British army and 

 navy to be maintained as a means to di- 

 vert a portion of the people's earnings to 

 the support of the younger sons of the 

 aristocracy, and the British workman to 



continue to plod his reluctant and incapa- 

 ble way along. 



That is a brilliant scheme for Great 

 Britain; but that those young, progressive, 

 virile colonies, such as Canada and Aus- 

 tralia, will be brought to acquiesce, is not 

 probable. In fact, the whole scheme seems 

 to me so ridiculous that I have no idea that 

 the British people, people not prone to act 

 hastily or to make mistakes, will ever 

 seriously attempt to put it into execution. 



To see (Jreat Britain preparing to cure 

 her deep-seated trouble by the superficial 

 remedy of a protective tariff is like watch- 

 ing a man whom we know has a cancer 

 eating at his vitals trying to purify his 

 blood by treating a sore finger. 



The "thirty years of stagnation" in Brit- 

 ish industry doesn't result from lack of a 

 protective tariff. The trouble lies deeper 

 than that, and the time spent in experi- 

 menting with the tariff will be iiut time 

 wasted. 



What ails the industries of (ireat Britain 

 and of all Europe is the American work- 

 man. Oui- great resources in natural 

 wealth is a handicap to other nations, but 

 the American workman is the chief diffi- 

 culty with which they must contend, 

 * * * 



The free night schools of Chicago were 

 opened last Monday night and were filled 

 to overflowing at once, over lO.tXK) pupils 

 being enrolled the first night, and over 

 1,000 turned away temporarily until pro- 

 vision could be made for them. And pro- 

 vision will be made for them— every last 

 one of them— and for all others who wish 

 to go. Chicago will see that every man. 

 woman and child that wants to climti has 

 an unrestricted opportunity. 



One of the daily papers had a reproduc- 

 tion of a snap shot taken at one corner of 

 one of the rooms. And in that collection 

 of eleven pupils were nationalities repre- 

 sented as follows: A Syrian woman, a 

 French girl, a .Japanese, a Chinaman, an 

 Italian, a Swede and a Bohemian. That 

 is, they are all Americans now, as tUey 

 will tell you with great pride, but they 

 were born in the other countries. Most of 

 the puiiils of the night schools are. In fact, 

 • foreign born, for of those born in this coun- 

 try few find it necessary to attend night 

 schools to get an education. 



Those night school pupils work hard all 

 day, and then, freely and of their own 

 accord, an.xiously and eagerly, they take 

 from their hours of sleep and recreation 

 the time for the night school and self-im- 

 liroveinent. For hope is stirring in their 

 breasts, wanning their hearts and shining 

 In their faces. They have come into a 

 new^ world. All the hopelessness and op- 

 pression, all the heavy burden of grinding 

 poverty and militarism they have left be- 

 liiiid them in the old country. 



And in great, free America they have a 

 chance — such a splendid chance— to rise 

 from the ruck of the coinmon and the 

 poor. And will they not work hard to im- 



